"'It's not my fault! Don't look at me, you would have done the same thing under my circumstance.'

That seems to be a common problem in the United States today. Few people today will accept the blame for our problems, so nothing seems to be done to solve them. It all boils down to one single word. Responsibility. It is the individual quality each person must have for society to work. Most importantly, responsibility is doing what we know we should do regardless of the personal cost. This is the sense of responsibility that seems to be getting lost. Politicians are trying to cover up mistakes instead of accepting the consequences. Sports stars are getting into trouble with the law, and movie producers are producing morally disgusting movies.

It is not them, however, that are to blame for society's problems. We are the people that elect the politicians and watch the irresponsible sports stars and dirty movies. The problem lies with us, the ordinary individuals.

David and Sharon Shoo of St. Charles, Illinois, were ordinary people. Like most of us, they thought a little nine day trip to Acapulco without the kids would be nice. Their nine and four-year-old kids were left at home with no supervision whatsoever. David and Sharon Shoo were arrested at O'Hare airport and charged with felony abandonment. Shameful. None of us would do anything like that.

Maybe, Maybe not. An English teacher from Chicago's Steimetz High School didn't seem to be much more responsible. In 1994, Steimetz was involved in a regional scholastic competition. Gerald Plecki got a hold of the answers to the questions and gave them to his team. When a team member became upset about this, Plecki told her, 'Everyone cheats; that's the way the world works. You're a fool to play by the rules.' Obviously, even teachers can be bitten by the irresponsible bug.

People everywhere are acting this way. At Walt-Whitman High School, seventeen-year old William Sanders openly admits to cheating regularly with his programmable calculator. In fact, for a a twenty dollar fee, Sanders hooked his calculator to a friend's and used it to give the friend his answers during a test. He's not the only irresponsible student either. A survey for Who's Who Among American High School Students, found that seventy-eight percent of the high school students surveyed admit to having cheated No one is immune.

So all is lost. We might as well roll over and die. We are all self-centered, irresponsible hypocrites, and society is doomed. Wrong. We may not be perfect. But we can still act responsibly. A high school student from Boston, Razeena Sadiq, proved that even high school students can do the right thing. One cold winter morning when she was walking to school, she noticed that an apartment building was on fire. She was the only person around, so she entered the building herself. She pounded on doors and helped older people to safety. After the firefighters arrived, she went home to get clothing for the fire victims. When she returned, she helped the victims find shelter in the surrounding houses.

Even in our area, great things are being done. In Pekin, a town less than half an hour from where I live, a cat rolled into a lake pinning a person underneath it. Instantly, the nearby people jumped into the lake and together lifted the car and saved the victim's life. Ordinary people can become heroes when they need to be.

All of us come into contact with responsible people from time to time. One cold winter day, my grandfather's car had a flat tire while he was driving. My grandfather was incapable of changing the tire himself, but a state-trooper stopped to help. It would have been wonderful if the trooper had called someone to help my grandfather, but instead, the trooper changed the tire himself. He went above and beyond the acceptable, and took full responsibility for the problem.

In our community, people are acting responsibly too. One such responsible man is Virgil Robinson. Over the last few years, this man has made it his responsibility to see to the rejuvenation of our local cemetery. It is a job that few people want, but which he has given his full attention to.

We all know responsible people. My grandmother has a handicapped card because of her arthritis. This enables her to park at the best places when she goes shopping. She only uses it. however, when her arthritis is really giving her problems. It is the simple little acts like these that show us that responsibility is not completely lost.

"People in the village of Ridgewood, N.J. were shaken last winter by the death of two teenagers in an automobile accident. Village officials wondered how to prevent another tragedy of that kind. They finally decided to ask parents to permit the police to enter homes where teenagers were holding parties during the absence of the parents.